The mouth of Ecola Creek enters the Pacific Ocean at the north edge of the Oregon community of Cannon Beach and its picturesque Haystack Rock. The Ecola Creek watershed drains approximately 22 square miles, with the entire basin lying within six miles of the Pacific. Maximum elevation is 3,075 feet. North of Ecola Creek lies Ecola State Park.

Captain Clark crossed Ecola Creek on January 8, 1806, on his visit to see a Blue Whale. He also gave it its name.

"... Crossed a Creek 80 yards near 5 Cabins, and proceeded to the place the whale had perished, found only the Skelleton of this monster on the Sand between 2 of the villages of the Kil a mox nation; the Whale was already pillaged of every valuable part by the Kil a mox Inds. in the vecinity of whose village's it lay on the Strand where the waves and tide had driven up & left it. this Skeleton measured 105 feet. I returned to the village of 5 Cabins on the Creek which I shall call E co-la or whale Creek ..."
[Clark, January 8, 1806]

Captain Clark camped on the north side of Ecola Creek on January 8, 1806.

"...
The high tide obliged me to delay untill late before the tide put out, I Shot a raven & a gul with my Small riffle which Suppised these people a little They are fond of blue & white large beed only, files & fish Hooks which are largeó after Diner we Set out Crossed the Creek in a Small Canoe The tide out and Encamped on the opposit Side,
..."
[Clark, January 8, 1806, first draft]

Click image to enlarge

Whale, Ecola Creek, Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Image taken July 14, 2010.

Click image to enlarge

Whale, Ecola Creek, Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Image taken July 14, 2010.

Early Ecola Creek ...

The original name "Ecola" came from Captain Clark on January 8, 1806, and was the native name for "whale".

The 1869 Coast Pilot calls the creek "Ecola or Whale Creek". The 1889 Coast Pilot uses "Elk or Ecola Creek", and the 1942 Coast Pilot uses the name "Elk Creek". (See more below.)

According to the Ecola Creek Watershed Council (via Oregon State University Website, 2010) the use of "Ecola" was not fully accepted by early white settlers who called the creek and the community which grew up on the south shore of the creek "Elk Creek" (today's Cannon Beach). However, as many other communities also answered to "Elk Creek", the name "Ecola" came back into use.

In January 1974 the U.S. Board of Geographic Names made "Ecola Creek", "West Fork Ecola Creek", and "North Fork Ecola Creek", the official names for what use to be known as "Elk Creek", "West Fork Elk Creek", and "North Fork Elk Creek".

"... This prominent cape, in latitude 45o 58', is twelve miles north-northwest from Cape Falcon, and nineteen miles southeast by south half south from Cape Disappointment. The coast from Cape Falcon curves two miles eastward; is bold and rugged, guarded by many high rocky islets and reefs, and in several places bordered by a low sand beach at the base of the cliffs. Two miles south of the head, Clarke (1805-'6) locates a creek, eighty yards wide at its mouth, which he calls Ecola or Whale Creek.
..."

1889 Coast Pilot, "Elk or Ecola Creek":

"... Exactly half-way between Cape Falcon and Tillamook Head a secondary ridge comes from the eastward with an elevation of then hundred and fifty feet at a little less than two-thirs of a mile from shore ... From Midway Cliff the shore continues in a straight line north-northwest for two and two-thirds miles to the mouth of Ecola Creek; thence it turns sharply to northwest half west for the same distance to the westernmost point of Tillamook Head.

"... The shore approaches to Tillamook Head from Midway Cliff (five and a third miles to the southward), are moderately high and wooded, and run straight north-northwest to the mouth of Elk or Ecola Creek, with a broad low-water beach. At one and a half miles from Midway Cliff there is a cluster of rocks covering an area of four hundred yards, and stretching out from the low-water line to ten fathoms. The largest is two hundred and fifty yeards in extent and two hundred and thirty-five feet high, which is higher than the adjacent, slightly broken shore. Two smaller rocks on the south side of the large one are ninety-three and seventy-eight feet high. At two and a half miles from Midway Cliff the Ecola Creek enters, with a broad, retreating mouth, low cliffs and land on the south shore, and higher broken cliffs on the north shore. There is a line of sand dunes on each side of the stream which are about half a mile in length, north and south, and form a feature in the views of the Head as seen from the southward. A short distance inside the shore-line this tream is only twenty yards wide, it comes through a sharp, deep valley, densely wooded, and the break through the immediate coast hills is quite marked.
..."

1942, Coast Pilot "Elk Creek":

"... Double Peak, halfway between Cape Falcon and Tillamook Head, is the seaward termination of a ridge extending eastward ...
From Double Peak, the coast extends north-northwestward for 2.7 miles to the mouth of Elk Creek, and then turns sharply northwestward for the same distance to the western point of Tillamook head. The coast is high and wooded, with broken cliffs bordered by numerous rocks, except at Cannon Beach, at the mouth of Elk Creek.
..."

From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...

Clark, January 8, 1806 ...

The last night proved fair and Cold wind hard from the S. E. we Set out early and proceeded to the top of the mountain [Tillamook Head] next to the which is much the highest part and that part faceing the Sea is open, from this point I beheld the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in my frount a boundless Ocean; to the N. and N. E. the coast as as far as my sight Could be extended, the Seas rageing with emence wave and brakeing with great force from the rocks of Cape Disapointment [Cape Disappointment, Washington] as far as I could See to the N. W. The Clatsops Chinnooks and other villagers on each Side of the Columbia river and in the Praries below me [Clatsop Beach, also referred to as Clatsop Plains, comprised of Sunset Beach and Columbia Beach. This area today is the location of Seaside, Oregon], the meanderings of 3 handsom Streams heading in Small lakes at the foot the high Country; The Columbia River for a Some distance up, with its Bays and Small rivers and on the other Side I have a view of the Coast for an emence distance to the S. E. by S. the nitches and points of high land which forms this Corse for a long ways aded to the inoumerable rocks of emence Sise out at a great distance from the Shore [such as Haystack Rock] and against which the Seas brak with great force gives this Coast a most romantic appearance. from this point of View [Tillamook Head] my guide pointed to a village at the mouth fo a Small river [Ecola Creek] near which place he Said the whale was, he also pointed to 4 other places where the princpal Villages of the Kil la mox were Situated, I could plainly See the houses of 2 of those Villeges & the Smoke of a 3rd which was two far of for me to disern with my naked eye ...
after taking the Courses and computed the Distances in my own mind, I proceeded on down a Steep decent to a Single house the remains of an old Kil a mox Town in a nitch imediately on the Sea Coast, at which place great no. of eregular rocks are out and the waves comes in with great force.
...
The Coast in the neighbourhood of this old village is slipping from the Sides of the high hills, in emence masses; fifty or a hundred acres at a time give way and a great proportion of an instant precipitated into the Ocean. those hills and mountains are principally composed of a yellow Clay; their Slipping off or Spliting assunder at this time is no doubt Caused by the incessant rains which has fallen within the last two months. the mountains Covered with a verry heavy Croth of pine & furr, also the white Cedar or arbor vita and a Small proportion of the black alder, this alder grows to the hight of Sixty or Seventy feet and from 2 to 3 feet in diamiter. Some Speies of pine on the top of the Point of View [Tillamook Head] rise to the emmence hight of 210 feet and from 8 to 12 feet in diameter, and are perfectly Sound and Solid. Wind hard from the S. E and See looked [blank] in the after part of the Day breaking with great force against the Scattering rocks at Some distance from Shore [possibly those at the base of Ecola Point, Ecola State Park], and the ruged rockey points under which we were obleged to pass and if we had unfortunately made one false Stet we Should eneviateably have fallen into the Sea and dashed against the rocks in an instant, fortunately we passed over 3 of those dismal points and arived on a butifull Sand Shore on which we Continued for 2 miles [Cannon Beach], Crossed a Creek [Ecola Creek] 80 yards near 5 Cabins, and proceeded to the place the whale had perished, found only the Skelleton of this monster on the Sand between 2 of the villages of the Kil a mox nation; the Whale [Historians believe it was the Blue Whale] was already pillaged of every valuable part by the Kil a mox Inds. in the vecinity of whose village's it lay on the Strand where the waves and tide had driven up & left it. this Skeleton measured 105 feet. I returned to the village of 5 Cabins on the Creek which I shall call E co-la or whale Creek [today known as Ecola Creek], found the nativs busily engaged boiling the blubber, which they performed in a large Squar wooden trought by means of hot Stones; ...

All Lewis and Clark quotations from Gary Moulton editions of the Lewis and Clark Journals, University of Nebraska Press, all attempts have been made to type the quotations exactly as in the Moulton editions, however typing errors introduced by this web author cannot be ruled out; location interpretation from variety of sources, including this website author.